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How to Get Facebook Users to Share Your Content

Facebook recently announced its latest news feed algorithm update. Previously the company opted to reduce the organic visibility of brands and content publishers. However, in this latest update, Facebook announced that the newsfeed will place a greater emphasis on updates from friends and family.

In fact, the biggest piece of advice that was shared, was that Facebook Page admins and editors should focus on posting things that their audiences would want to share with their friends.

As a result, content publishers need to have a better understanding of why people share content on Facebook. Fractl, a content marketing agency, recently did a study which provided some insight into the top reasons why people share user content. Here are the results to help you learn how to get people to share your content on Facebook.

1.People Want to Entertain Their Friends

In this study, the top reason (48% of respondents) that people said that they shared something via Facebook is because they want to entertain their friends. The type of content that would qualify as entertaining content is any content that is fun, funny, cut or inspirational. Think positive, “feel good” content if you are looking for content ideas that will entertain and be shared by users.

2.People Want To Express Their Opinions

For the second reason why people share content on Facebook, 17% of respondents reported that they want to express their opinions and show who they are by sharing things that are meaningful to them. This includes hobbies, sports, pop culture and causes and political concerns.

Only 5% of survey respondents reported sharing content more than four times per day. However, of these respondents, 42% said that they shared content daily in order to maintain a certain image for their Facebook profiles.

Another interesting finding is that 62% of people reported that they avoid sharing content that makes them look bad. Therefore, if you want your content to be shared, it is a good idea to post content that people would be proud to share.

3.People Want Others to Care

According to the study, 13% of people said that they would share something that would make their friends care about what they posted. Whether the feeling evoked is happiness, fear, anger, surprise, sadness, or disgust, these powerful emotions can make Facebook users share posts. However, 52% of respondents reported that they did not share content about controversial issues. As a result, it is probably best to avoid divisive topics when it comes to obtaining Facebook shares.

4.People Want Others to Learn Something

Only 11% of Facebook users reported that they share content on Facebook that their friends might find useful. Therefore, there is a chance that you might get some shares on Facebook from posting news content, reviews or how-tos.

5.Other Reasons People Want to Share Content

Other reasons (11%) including trying to persuade friends, letting people know about things that they’ve read and to get others opinions about something.

While many of the results of this study probably aren’t very surprising, it is a good idea to make sure that you create content that meets these three goals: